Jerry Lee Lewis - "Money" (1964)

This was already a classic when Jerry Lee Lewis cut it live in 1964 in Germany (on Live At The Star Club, Hamburg, you can thank me later for the recommendation). Since the Barrett Strong's original single kicked off Berry Gordy's Motown empire in 1960, just about everyone covered it from the Rolling Stones to the Kingsmen to the Beatles, who cut the definitive version. Until Jerry Lee came along, anyway. I still think the Beatles' version is the classic, but Lewis manages to dig a new groove and drenge new meanings and transforms into it into virtually a new song by making the familiar piano riff even more desperate, every drawl and lewd breath describing exactly what kind of freedom he seeks.

Now you could call him a showoff when he goes into his patented stomps on the piano, bullheaded, orgasmic, flashing piano keys like jacknives, confident his talent and charisma will win him the world. Yeah, it's true he tried to transform every song he performed in the fifties and early sixties into "Whole Lotta Shaking" and that not every song could withstand that treatment. But when it works it's because he manages to find Jerry Lee inside the song and his utter self-belief wore true: others mastered the style, even the swagger, none could muster quite the same self-confidence.